Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1910 — BOOK REVIEWS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BOOK REVIEWS

Capt. Frank H. Shaw, author of "First at the Pole,” the first of the north pole stories for boys that have appeared since the recent reports of exploration in polar seas, is still a comparatively young man with a true love for travel and adventure. A young seaman at 16, Cept. Shaw served four years in sailing ships and had been three times around the world at the age of 29. He has crossed the Atlantic to/ty-two times. Warwick Deeping, the author of "The Red Saint,” ‘‘Uther and Igiaine,” has a new book ready for publication called “The Rust of Rome-.’’ In this-'* story Mr. Deeping deals with the problems of modern life with the same vigor which made his mediaeval stories successful. Mr. Deeping began his career by studying medicine and practiced as a doctor for a year. Abandoning medicine for literature, he wrote several stories. He lives in Sussex, England, where in the intervals of his literary work he occupies himselt with tennis, golf, cycling, gardening, carpentering and all out of door work. A. Radcliffe Dugmore, author of “Camera Adventures in the African Wilds,” is the son of an English army captain, who spent most of his life at outdoor sport, chiefly shooting and falconry. When Radcliffe, Jr., was 8 years old he was taken on daily bunts over the family estates in Ireland. It was his job to mark the birds and “if I didn’t,” he says, ”1 got a good licking.” After a few years of that life in Ireland his father took the whole family around the world io a cruising yacht, a trip that lasted six years. Capt. Dugmore was a collector of guns and the yacht was a grotesque arsenal. The boy had the, to him, delightful task of keeping those guns clean and bright. His schooling was of necessity desultory, but the wide range of miscellaneous knowledge he bas acquired on all sorts of outdoor subjects has been of great assistance In his work. “The Undesirable Governess,” the last of the three books left unpublished at the time of Mr. Crawford’s death, differs from the novels associated w’itb its prolific author. The story is distinguished by its humor of situation and characterization and in the past humor has not been a weapon-employ-ed by Mr. Crawford to any great extent. The theme of the story Is decidedly novel and original. It concerns the desire of a lady of society to have in her employ a governess who shall possess the highest mental attributes, but whose physical charms shall not be such as to win the attention of any of the men of the family. The way in which the author develops the theme is amusing, and the skill with which his characters are placed in unexpected situations and extricated from their difficulties shows that Mr. Crawford’s gifts as a story writer remained unimpaired to the last. Katherine Cecil Thurston, who wrote “The Masquerader,” and the new novel “Max,” now running serially, is described as a thoughtful woman, very simple in her tastes and a lover of the country. She is an especially good walker and Is never happier than when she is walking along the cliffs or over the fields of the Irish country which she calls her home. Mrs. Thurston believes that In modern literature sincerity is the chief essential. “Here and there,” she said, recently, “you meet with the man or woman ,who says to you, ’Oh, this or that was not my real work. I did not put myself Into it.’ There is no statement more false than this. There is no position less tenable for the artist. Every deed that man does and every word that a man writes contains inevitably something of himself, and if we are to be truly sincere, we do not shelter behind excuses, but prefer to say, ’The work was weak, the work was immature, but at the time I could do no better.’ ”